Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead, who announced the latest figures during a visit to an Edinburgh cheesemonger, described Scotland's food and drink industry as "a fantastic success story".

"I have no doubt that it has smashed its turnover target six years early because of the high quality products and dedication of those working in the sector," he said.

"Today's figures - and last week's Bank of Scotland prediction of thousands of new jobs being created in the sector - demonstrate the strength of Scottish food and drink as an economic driver for Scotland."

'Tremendous result'

Scotland Food and Drink chief executive James Withers called the record achievement of £13bn in sales "a tremendous result".

He said: "After a period of flat growth up to 2007, we believed we could take the industry to a new level.

"The industry has worked collaboratively together to do this and government has worked in partnership with us to deliver.

"It is particularly appropriate that we announce this success and launch a new target during Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight."

He added: "We're now committed to push on from here and believe we have the potential to reach £16.5bn in turnover by 2017.

"Achieving this ambition means both building further business across the UK and, crucially, transforming our export activity and breaking into new markets."